Creating a Patient Experience

They don't have certifications, licenses, and letters after their names - but what they do have is TIME. Volunteers - even those who have worked as paid healthcare workers- by sheer nature of their alturistic, community, other-oriented role, are in the most unique position in the hospital environment. They can choose to let of other tasks to simply sit with an anxious patient, answer the questions of an out-of-town visitor, or physically accompany a visitor to a hard to find destination. That outpouring of time is a special and rare commodity in the past-paced driven environment of healthcare. Hospitals are full of tasks that need to be done in a timely manner - volunteers can step back from that to simply focus on the people. Volunteers can help to shape a patient or visitor's experience. Research shows us that making people feel good (relatively speaking at the hospital, of course) goes way beyond simply creating a nice experience, but actually is related to concrete outcomes benefitting patient outcomes. Volunteers really do make difference!